Imagine a city where every person feels they belong; where everyone has access to the resources they need to thrive and accomplish their goals . . .

A teddy bear in a Christmas tree at YSM's Toy Market

YSM’s Toy Market, 2020

Up to 400 YSM families are turning to us for help to give their kids a holiday to remember.

To keep everyone healthy and safe this year, we’ve engaged a new online app that allows donors to easily shop through YSM’s wish-list for toys and gift for the children in our community.

We invite you to join us for this special event.

Learn More About YSM's Toy Market

Who we Serve

YSM works with three distinct groups, providing programs and services designed specifically to support and propel our neighbours to remove barriers in their lives, overcome poverty and reach their personal goals.

Street-Involved Youth

YSM Evergreen’s services are unique, providing wrap around care and support for the many challenges faced by Toronto’s street-involved youth (16-24 years). From health and dental care, employment services, mental health counselling, warm meals, and much more, we help youth find their potential and create a smoother path towards goal achievement.

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Families in Need

We work to strengthen families, to help them stay together as a unit. Workshops on parenting, after school programming, skill development, care management and much more cater to the unique needs of struggling families.

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Adults Experiencing Chronic Poverty

YSM’S Bridges services support adults working towards a better life through personalized wrap around care, small group learning, warm meals, and community connection. We focus on helping adults aged 18-60 to improve their emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing by setting and reaching goals.

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Our Mission

Who We Are

 

 

All our resources and energy at Yonge Street Mission (YSM) are focused on working to respond to immediate needs and help people move from surviving to thriving. We believe if we combine our collective resources and wisdom, together we can reach our goal of ending chronic poverty in a generation. We invite you to join us.
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Changing Lives

Change begins and ends with people. YSM’s motivation has always been about helping people rise out of poverty to realize their full potential. Our holistic model focuses on adults experiencing chronic poverty, street-involved youth, families in need, and community development.
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Building Communities

From our experience, we have learned that in order to have lasting positive change, community residents must be the leading voices in the process. YSM works to support their collective voice.
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Transforming Toronto

To fully realize our vision of ending chronic poverty in Toronto in one generation, we must identify key systemic barriers and work with the community and all levels of government, as well as other stakeholders, to affect positive change to remove barriers.
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Join us to transform Toronto together

Be the Change

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OUR Stories

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Amanda – Gives her time to YSM – the place that changed her life

Amanda had struggled with poverty her whole life, until she found support and care at YSM. Now, with more stability in her own life, Amanda volunteers and shares her story of hope with all those she encounters.
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Ismail – Building access to recreation for all

Recreational activities are important to families and the development of communities. Seeing challenges for Regent Park residents in accessing these activities, the community took action, with the help of Ismail . . .
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Azan – “YSM has been a life-saver…”

Navigating challenging legal systems and balancing visits with his daughters, Azan was losing hope – until he found YSM. Here, he discovered support that helps him spend more time with his family and build hope for their future together.
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How we Change Lives

Jubilee program
YSM’s Jubilee program helped me to get more experience and feel more comfortable getting a job. Coming to work every week and creating a schedule helped me and the staff made me realize there are some good work environments.
YSM was providing me with health care, supporting my creative expression, fed me, counseled me, took me to a Picasso exhibit at the University of Toronto which still delights my memory . . . there wasn't much you didn't provide.
Azan
YSM is making a big difference in my life and the lives of my children. They are helping me get in the right direction.
Samantha
It’s been a really rough year, but Double Take has been a very stable part of my life and has helped me gain work experience so that I can move forward with my life.
Service [at Evergreen] is amazing. You'll be treated more like family than just another visitor.